Plato was born in 427 BC, the son of a distinguished Athenian family. He received an excellent education and became acquainted with the Greek philosophical currents. However, what decisively shaped his moral and spiritual character was Socrates, through his life, philosophy, and death. 

The great philosopher was the reason the young Plato turned to philosophy, and Socratic conceptual thought formed the basis for the creation of the later Platonic theory of Forms. 

Plato interpreted Socrates deeply as a man and teacher, and captured his personality in many of his works. He traveled to Egypt, Cyrene, and Magna Graecia, where he tried, unsuccessfully, to apply his political principles to the organization of the Greek cities of Sicily. In 387 BC he founded the Academy in Athens, a famous center of philosophy and the Muses, which lasted for almost ten centuries, until the time of Justinian. 

He devoted himself until his death (348 BC) to teaching and writing. His works, all of which survive, were classified by Thrasyllus into nine tetralogies. Almost all belong to the genre of dialogue, through which Plato emerged, besides being a leading philosopher, as a true poet. His teaching springs from the doctrines of Greek thought, Orphism, Pythagorean and Ionic philosophy, and of course Socratic discourse, and ultimately takes shape, as Plato's personal creation, into a colossal philosophical system. 

His philosophy - ethical, ontological, political - is the foundation of world Idealism and has influenced the thought of all ages more than perhaps anyone else